Ben Arbuckle was the OC at Wazzou last year, and he specializes in a very short passing game. He's a Zach Kittley guy, working with him at Houston Baptist, and then Kittley brought him to Western Kentucky in 2021 as an analyst. When Kittley took the Texas Tech OC job in 2022, Arbuckle was promoted, and then took the OC job at WSU for 2023.
Kittley and Arbuckle run air raid concepts somewhat in the mold of Mike Leach....short passing as an extension of the run game. Bailey Zappe, in 2021 coached by Kittley and Arbuckle, led the country in passing attempts by a wide margin, but only averaged 8.7 YPA. High percentage, short passing game, in high volume.
In 2022, with Arbuckle calling plays, Austin Reed was 3rd in the country in passing attempts per game. But only 7.9 YPA. Same story.
And then last year with Ward, he was 3rd in the country again in passing attempts, but only 7.7 YPA, which is 44th nationally despite ranking 21st in completion percentage. So he's completing a high number of passes, but with still a low YPA, meaning your average depth of target is very low. See a pattern?
You will see a MUCH more balanced attack with Ward this year here.
Wazzou ran the ball 342 times, and threw it 510 times. And that's only actual passes, that doesn't account for called pass plays that either ended up in scrambles or sacks, of which there were many.
Miami in 2023 ran the ball 440 times and threw it 436 times. I do expect to see a little heavier passing attack this season, but we're going to run the ball MUCH more than Wazzou did and we're going to throw the ball downfield MUCH more than Wazzou did.
Cam Ward should legitimately have a monster season.